I just saw this great award-winning short animation movie. The film uses over 2500 brand images, logos and mascots we all know to tell a story. It features Ronald Mc Donald as the villain and the Michelin Mascots as cops. Maybe the creators of Logorama, a collective called H5, chose the Michelin guys as cops because they’re French? In any case, Logorama made me realise how much logos are integrated in our daily existence. H5 members said:

“Logorama presents an over-marketed world built only from logos and real trademarks that are destroyed by a series of natural disasters (including an earthquake and a tidal wave of oil). Logotypes are used to describe an alarming universe (similar to the one that we are living in) with all the graphic signs that accompany us everyday in our lives. This over-organized universe is violently transformed by the cataclysm becoming fantastic and absurd. It shows the victory of the creative against the rational, where nature and human fantasy triumph.”

After watching the movie, I wondered what we could do against the ubiquity of logos and advertising. It reminded me of Time Square in NYC and the fascination you can’t help but feeling when you’re in the middle of the big screens and logos. I remember going to the M&M’s shop there. I felt so stupid being in a shop completely dedicated to a brand. Like everyone else (the shop is extremely popular), I took a photo with the M&M’s mascots and looked at all the M&M’s products sold in the shop. Not only could you buy candy, you could also buy T-shirts, caps, towels, bags, pens and other shit with M&M’s written in big letters on it. It was not cheap at all, quite expensive actually. Yet, people were queuing to buy it! How stupid is it to PAY for things that advertise for a brand?

I’ve always refused to wear anything that has a logo on it- shirts, purse, hoodies… Why would I spend loads of money to become a human advertiser? It just doesn’t make sense. However, I see people displaying Abercrombie & Fitch, Diesel, Adidas and co everyday on their shirts and Louis Vuitton on their handbags. Most branded products are a rip-off. If you want to buy something expensive, buy for the quality of the material or because it’s handmade or whatever. Not because there’s a huge logo on it.